Saturday, 16 August 2014 00:00
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SRI LANKA’S Police seized 59 kilos of heroin on Friday, bringing the amount of drugs seized in 2014 to over 200 kilos as the country battles fears of becoming a narcotics hub. The latest drug bust was made near Sri Lanka’s hill town of Kandy. Police also arrested four suspects including a woman and two vehicles in the raid. Last month Police seized 133 kilograms and arrested 12 people suspected to have links to the international drug trade. Local Police have also released Interpol red notices on several drug barons, particularly in Pakistan.
Sri Lanka’s Government earlier expressed fear the island is becoming a transhipment hub for drugs after Police records revealed 53,000 people had been arrested for drug offences in 2013. Arrests have increased in 2013 as a result of increased crackdowns, Police said in a statement, pointing out that most arrests were for possessing marijuana.
Police also noted that they had detained about 351 kilograms of hard drugs in 2013, which is a massive increase from just 15 kilograms detected in 2012. In August 2013 Customs detected 262 kilograms of heroin, which was reported to be the largest detection in South Asia.
Even Government Ministers such as Government Spokesman and Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella have admitted such large quantities point to Sri Lanka functioning as a narcotics hub. While this serves as an excuse to policymakers to soft peddle the issue since the main players are powerful members of the Government or have connections to its top rungs, it does nonetheless have deep impact on the public and seeps into other issues of corruption.
Police statistics show in the first six months of 2012, over 19,000 people suspected of drug possession were arrested. Since 2012 special Police teams have been deployed at Sri Lanka’s main international airport to detect smuggling attempts.
Sri Lanka has also been used as a transit point involving other countries such as Brazil, Peru, Thailand and Nigeria. In 2011 the National Dangerous Drugs Control Board warned that the country was under increasing threat from drug smuggling in its annual report. Over 60 foreigners have been arrested for drug smuggling in the last five years, the report added.
The crony system that is in place allows for an unhealthy alliance between wrongdoers and politicians with no space for the law to do its duty impartially. Even though known drug lords are part of the governance system, there is no provision within which to target them as the crony system protects them, usually at the cost of the public.
Sri Lanka’s embattled Police have also come under fire. Firstly for failing to ensure transparency in one of the largest drug busts in history that implicated Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne and his son and on the other for mysteriously disappearing drugs during investigation. Criticised by many factions including the Opposition police have now indicated they plan to publicly destroy seized drugs, much like it does alcohol and cigarettes. Yet no dates have been given to seal the deal, as it were.
With public confidence daunted by the sheer magnitude of the problem and political will blunted by its riches, the narcotics trade is likely to continue having a comfortable home in Sri Lanka.
